STUDENT ASSESSMENT
How can schools more adequately assess students' progress in achieving high performance standards?
Standards are intended to drive changes in instruction and classroom practices. Standards-based assessments, which define what is important to learn, can motivate changes in teaching and student learning. Assessments define what educators and the community want students to know and be able to do. Assessment tasks translate academic standards into specific meaning for students and teachers. Well-aligned, authentic, and continuous feedback is needed to inform teachers, students, and parents of their progress in meeting state standards.
However, assessments do not always have the positive impact that is desired. The misuse of assessments of early childhood development, the narrow focus of some assessments used to gauge overall school effectiveness, and assessments that are poorly aligned with desired outcomes and standards are examples of negative influences. Inaccurate assessment information can mislead instruction; narrowly focused assessments can lead to a narrowing of instruction.
There is an increasing imperative for teachers and school administrators to have the skills to evaluate the quality of assessments and to effectively use the results of assessments to guide student learning both in the breadth of content and the depth of inquiry into content areas. Teachers need to understand key concepts of assessment to be effective consumers of assessment models, to implement assessments with accuracy and fidelity, to use assessment information to guide instruction and school planning, and to ensure the alignment of standards and curriculum with instruction and assessment.
NWREL has for several years focused on increasing the ability of teachers and school administrators to use classroom assessment to guide instruction and student learning. NWREL's trait-based assessment models in writing, reading, oral communication, mathematics problem solving, and bilingual language development provide teachers with powerful tools to assess students' learning and to organize instruction.
